Election Day

At lunch, my wife and I took our daughters to the polling place where we vote. We are registered in a very rural precinct, yet still had about a ten-minute wait. Another precinct, also voting in the elementary school library where we were, looked like about a twenty-five-minute wait. Surprising, but extraordinarily satisfying that my three-year-old daughter knew why we were going there (and who we were voting for).

The early afternoon exit polls at first seemed a bit alarming, but I have since learned that they were either (a) not polls of today's vote, but possibly numbers from early voting provided by the Kerry camp, or (b) numbers based on a sample of 59 percent women vs. 41 percent men. I have no sources on the national level, I will freely admit, and am relying on various websites for information. But I will be very surprised if the evening turns into a Kerry landslide as the initial exit polls might have suggested.

Drudge, who reported those polls, also notes that "early 2000 exit polls showed Gore +3 in Florida; showed Gore-Bush even in CO [Bush won by 9], 2000 exits showed Gore +4 in AZ [Bush won by 6]."

Polls are about ninety minutes away from closing in Indiana and Kentucky (EDT), and local returns will be available then. Saddle up after that, because the next big closing time is 8 pm.